NissinThis may come as a shock to college students and noodle lovers alike. For the first time in 45 years, instant ramen is switching up their style. Gone are the days of added MSG, sodium bombs, and artificial flavors. That's right; ramen is getting healthy. Specifically, Nissin's famous Cup Noodles which you've probably eaten over 25,000 times in your early 20s alone. Can you imagine, drunk-downing a bowl of ramen without waking up puffy, aching and bloated from salt and MSG? Sounds like noodle heaven to us. The changes will take place in the flavors that sell the most, which appear to be the chicken, beef and shrimp. The holy trinity of college carbs. #Blessed.
In the video, Al Multari, President and CEO of Nissin Foods USA, says while customers were all about the taste and affordability of the ramen, they really wanted to see a change in its nutritional value. In other words, it was time for ramen to get healthy. That being said, more than 20 percent of the sodium in their top three ramen sellers has been removed, along with about 15 percent of the sodium in the rest of their ramen varieties. All added MSG has been taken away, and same goes for all artificial flavors. Those flavors have been replaced by spices like turmeric, lime and paprika. So yum.
The big question on everyone's mind might be if it's going to taste different from the norm. We can't imagine they would take such a big leap if they weren't confident customers would be happy with the change. The biggest issue they seemed to run into was decreasing the sodium. The salty flavor majorly contributes to the tastiness of the ramen, so we understand that finding a balance could be tough.
We have to wonder, however, would the nutritionist who ranked our favorite drunk munchies, and put ramen as the worst offender, change her mind after these changes? Chopsticks crossed.